Pretrip Report for Orlando in December 2012
We are finally getting closer to our Orlando trip in Dec 2012!
Travelers: Tanya (planner), Charles, Ryan (will be age 9) and Brandon (age 6)
Itinerary:
Sat Dec 1: Frontier Airlines, flying from Portland, Oregon (PDX) to Orlando, Florida (MCO)
Sun Dec 2: Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest 5:20 pm
Mon Dec 3: Epcot
Tue Dec 4: Islands of Adventure
Wed Dec 5: Universal Studios daytime and Magic Kingdom for electrical parade and fireworks
Thu Dec 6: Hollywood Studios, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater 3:45
Fri Dec 7: Seaworld or a much needed day of rest day?
Sat Dec 8: Kennedy Space Station
Sun Dec 9: Animal Kingdom, Chip and Dale Campfire at Ft. Wilderness
Mon Dec 10: Hollywood Studios/Universal/Islands for whatever was missed, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater 3:20
Tue Dec 11: Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest 4:30pm
Wed Dec 12: Frontier Airlines, MCO to PDX
I love planning for Disney vacations! I started planning this one in Jan 2012…. My planning includes:
1) best deals
2) numerous food allergies
3) best days (hopefully!) for each park
4) gathering the best tips I can find in touring books and websites
We live in Portland, Oregon. My husband and I have been to Disneyworld about 4 times before we had our kids. But since we live on the west coast, it has been easier and cheaper to take our kids to Disneyland. This time, we all really wanted to go to Disneyworld. But that means, I have to really dig for some deals!
For the airfare, we were looking at a minimum of $1500 to fly the four of us. That immediately put us over our budget. However, I found Frontier Airlines, which looks to be on the safe side for peanut allergy (leather seats to easily wash and doesn’t serve peanut) and seemed to have lower prices. Luckily, Frontier has an offer of bonus mileage points for opening a credit card with them. My husband and I both did this and earned enough points to buy three roundtrip flights with points. We could have accumulated more points to help pay for the 4th flight but decided to pay cash for the last roundtrip ticket so we could lock in our dates and the point levels at that time. In the end, our 4 RT tickets ended up costing $517 (cost of one roundtrip ticket, taxes for 3 tickets bought with points, and cost of opening two annual fee credit cards). We will still have to pay for checked baggage but that would have been additional anyway.
Next was figuring out where to stay. We will be spending most of the days at Disney but will be going to other area parks. I compared on-site hotels at Disney to local hotels and condos in Kissimmee, Orlando, and Lake Buena Vista. A cute condo in Kissimmee is what we decided to do. The price is competitive with the value resorts at Disney. The condo will have lots of space, a full kitchen (needed for preparing allergy-safe foods), and lots of amenities. We are so excited to stay there. I will post a review after our stay.
The next step was setting the itinerary. I like to go when crowds are lower so I looked at a variety of websites to help me figure out what were the best days to go to which park. For crowd level recommendations, I looked at Touringplans.com, UndercoverTourist.com, EasyWDW.com, along with using my own experience. Later, I found out that Magic Kingdom is opening the new Fantasyland attractions while we are there. Exciting but this will increase crowds! So far, I am keeping the schedule the same.
We have purchased the Disney tickets. They had a price increase in May or so and I wanted to get the lower price. I found the best price to be through UndercoverTourist.com with a discount link from the Mousesavers.com newsletter. Both websites also have tons of great information. I am still looking for best prices on Universal Orlando, Seaworld and Kennedy Space Station.
The last step for allergy planning is to figure out what safe products I need that I can buy in Florida. I will be contacting Disneyworld to get more details on a few menu items that might work for us and plan to bring whatever else we need into the park. For groceries, I plan to call Costco, Target and Whole Foods in Kissimmee and Orlando and see if they have the brands I need. I will plan to pack anything else we need.
I will add more details later! I am always looking for more tips so please let me know!
We are finally getting closer to our Orlando trip in Dec 2012!
Travelers: Tanya (planner), Charles, Ryan (will be age 9) and Brandon (age 6)
Itinerary:
Sat Dec 1: Frontier Airlines, flying from Portland, Oregon (PDX) to Orlando, Florida (MCO)
Sun Dec 2: Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest 5:20 pm
Mon Dec 3: Epcot
Tue Dec 4: Islands of Adventure
Wed Dec 5: Universal Studios daytime and Magic Kingdom for electrical parade and fireworks
Thu Dec 6: Hollywood Studios, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater 3:45
Fri Dec 7: Seaworld or a much needed day of rest day?
Sat Dec 8: Kennedy Space Station
Sun Dec 9: Animal Kingdom, Chip and Dale Campfire at Ft. Wilderness
Mon Dec 10: Hollywood Studios/Universal/Islands for whatever was missed, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater 3:20
Tue Dec 11: Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest 4:30pm
Wed Dec 12: Frontier Airlines, MCO to PDX
I love planning for Disney vacations! I started planning this one in Jan 2012…. My planning includes:
1) best deals
2) numerous food allergies
3) best days (hopefully!) for each park
4) gathering the best tips I can find in touring books and websites
We live in Portland, Oregon. My husband and I have been to Disneyworld about 4 times before we had our kids. But since we live on the west coast, it has been easier and cheaper to take our kids to Disneyland. This time, we all really wanted to go to Disneyworld. But that means, I have to really dig for some deals!
For the airfare, we were looking at a minimum of $1500 to fly the four of us. That immediately put us over our budget. However, I found Frontier Airlines, which looks to be on the safe side for peanut allergy (leather seats to easily wash and doesn’t serve peanut) and seemed to have lower prices. Luckily, Frontier has an offer of bonus mileage points for opening a credit card with them. My husband and I both did this and earned enough points to buy three roundtrip flights with points. We could have accumulated more points to help pay for the 4th flight but decided to pay cash for the last roundtrip ticket so we could lock in our dates and the point levels at that time. In the end, our 4 RT tickets ended up costing $517 (cost of one roundtrip ticket, taxes for 3 tickets bought with points, and cost of opening two annual fee credit cards). We will still have to pay for checked baggage but that would have been additional anyway.
Next was figuring out where to stay. We will be spending most of the days at Disney but will be going to other area parks. I compared on-site hotels at Disney to local hotels and condos in Kissimmee, Orlando, and Lake Buena Vista. A cute condo in Kissimmee is what we decided to do. The price is competitive with the value resorts at Disney. The condo will have lots of space, a full kitchen (needed for preparing allergy-safe foods), and lots of amenities. We are so excited to stay there. I will post a review after our stay.
The next step was setting the itinerary. I like to go when crowds are lower so I looked at a variety of websites to help me figure out what were the best days to go to which park. For crowd level recommendations, I looked at Touringplans.com, UndercoverTourist.com, EasyWDW.com, along with using my own experience. Later, I found out that Magic Kingdom is opening the new Fantasyland attractions while we are there. Exciting but this will increase crowds! So far, I am keeping the schedule the same.
We have purchased the Disney tickets. They had a price increase in May or so and I wanted to get the lower price. I found the best price to be through UndercoverTourist.com with a discount link from the Mousesavers.com newsletter. Both websites also have tons of great information. I am still looking for best prices on Universal Orlando, Seaworld and Kennedy Space Station.
The last step for allergy planning is to figure out what safe products I need that I can buy in Florida. I will be contacting Disneyworld to get more details on a few menu items that might work for us and plan to bring whatever else we need into the park. For groceries, I plan to call Costco, Target and Whole Foods in Kissimmee and Orlando and see if they have the brands I need. I will plan to pack anything else we need.
I will add more details later! I am always looking for more tips so please let me know!
